It is common to use grain augers and the like to transfer grain or other particulate material from a source area to a target area, for example from a transport container to a bin or other storage type container. Transport containers generally involve a container supported for rolling movement along the ground by wheels spaced apart at opposing ends of the container. A hopper type discharge is then typically located between the wheels below the container for discharging into the auger which subsequently conveys the material to the storage container.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,715 to Feterl, U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,866 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,055 both to Stewart et al and U.S. Pat. No. 4,963,066 to Boppart disclose various examples of grain augers used for conveying particulate materials. In each instance a main auger is supported on a wheeled frame for positioning of the discharge in alignment with the target area. A swing auger is provided at the inlet of the main auger for alignment with the source area. The hopper at the inlet of the swing auger however is restricted to positioning along an arced path which is difficult to align with the discharge hopper of a transport container. Often due to the narrow space between wheel sets within which a discharge hopper on a transport container is located, it is not possible to displace the swing auger is an arcing motion under the transport container parked beside the main auger without multiple steps of advancing and subsequent reversal of the vehicle position for proper alignment with the discharge hopper on the vehicle with the inlet hopper on the swing auger. The swing augers are thus difficult and time consuming to set up and may result in lost material being transferred due to its poor alignment.
On a much larger scale, for example when excavating earth in mines and the like, large conveyor systems can be used which involve multiple conveying sections connected in series as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,094 to Weyerman et al which discloses such a conveyor system. These conveyor systems however are much too large with far too many sections for the simple task of effectively transferring material from a small source such as a transport container to a suitable storage container at the target area with minimal set up time required.